US Federal Forces To Remain In Portland Until Violent Attacks End - DHS Chief

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2020) US Federal officers will remain in the city of Portland, Oregon until authorities can ensure courthouses and other facilities will no longer be attacked, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf testified before a Senate committee on Thursday.

"As of today, the full augmented DHS law enforcement posture remains in Portland. They will continue to remain until we are sure that the Hatfield Court House as well as other federal facilities in Portland will no longer be violently attacked," Wolf said.

Wolf said that the situation is slowly improving and that state officials are beginning to cooperate with federal authorities but belied the intentional abandonment of federal officers by local officials.

Wolf cited a July 22 Portland City Council resolution that prohibits the Portland Police Bureau from cooperating with the federal law enforcement as an example of local officials allowing the situation to get out of hand.

The July 22 resolution was in response to reports of excessive force used against journalists and legal observers covering the protests. The same day, The Russian Embassy in the United States sent a note of protest to the State Department after federal law enforcement officers assaulted two Channel One journalists in the city.

Wolf also addressed the controversy surrounding claims of "authoritarian" policing tactics employed by federal agents, including the presence of unmarked officers, the removal of name tags and "snatch-and-grab" incidents, where videos have shown protesters being pushed into unmarked vehicles by officers wearing heavy tactical gear.

The acting aecretary said that police markings are visible on officers' uniforms at all times but did concede that name tags have been removed after a number of officers were doxxed - the practice of researching and publishing confidential or identifying information about an individual on the internet.

The head of the DHS said that the reported "snatch-and-grab" tactics are de-escalatory in nature, to avoid inciting further unrest by having officers enter a congregation of protesters to make arrests.

Protests against police brutality and racism have erupted in Portland and other US cities after the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody on May 25. The Portland Protests have over recent weeks grown in numbers and evolved into a nightly battle against the federal forces that President Donald Trump deployed to the city despite the objections of state and local officials.

Federal officials, who have maintained a presence in Oregon's largest city for, now, over 60 days, say that they have an obligation to protect federal infrastructure and note that officials' reluctance to cooperate with them is limited to Portland.